(From company literature) Tamrac 5577 Expedition 7. The Expedition 7 is a large pack that accommodates a full complement of equipment. A large front pocket with a water-resistant zipper holds a light jacket or extra gear. The main compartment is completely foam padded with numerous adjustable, foam-padded dividers to protect multiple pro-size digital or film SLRs, a full range of lenses, and flashes. The camera with a long zoom attached is suspended on two vertical, foam-padded dividers that are internally reinforced with rigid plastic. Restraint straps hold the lens firmly in place. Three Windowpane-Mesh™ pockets inside the front flap visibly organize filters, film and other accessories. A plastic, foam-padded platform in the bottom provides shock protection while a LockDown™ rain flap protects the zipper from the elements.

Dual "wing" accessory pockets with water-resistant zippers organize and provide quick access to important accessories without disturbing your other gear. These "wing" pockets also feature Tamrac's U.S. patented Memory & Battery Management System™ that uses red flags to identify available memory cards and batteries from ones that have been used up.

A tripod is cradled (centered and balanced) securely between these pockets with Tamrac's QuickClip™ tripod attachment system while the lower, plastic-reinforced Tripod Foot Pocket holds two tripod legs secure.

The state-of-the-art harness system with Dual-Density Comfort Pads provides maximum carrying comfort while Air Flow Channels help keep you cool and dry during extended use. This pack is also equipped with a BioCurve™ dual-pivoting waist belt to provide a wide range of adjustment. Cinch straps on the shoulder harness and waist belt and an expandable sternum strap allow finer adjustments for maximum comfort. The harness also features "D" rings that accept Tamrac's optional backpack camera strap (Model N-11).

I was rather excited about finally having a backpack that would let me carry almost all of my gear. When it arrived, I pulled the tags of and immediately began to configure it for my equipment. I packed in the body, lenses and flashes and was fully impressed until it came to throw in some memory cards and batteries. The zipper on one of the upper pockets on the outside of the rear flap was faulty, making it impossible to close completely. I reluctantly removed my gear and called Tamrac to see what I would have to do to have it fixed.

I assume that, as had happened when an item arrived faulty from the factory before, they would send me a box in which it cold be returned. Not the case. I was shocked to discover that they wanted me to pay to ship it back to the factory for "inspection". Additionally, they had no plan to reimburse me for shipping costs if I was correct about the defect - not a difficult diagnosis if you have ever used a zipper before. To me, this is completely unacceptable. A brand new backpack is delivered from the manufacturer with a defect and the buyer should accept the additional cost of shipping it back to the factory to get it to the condition in which it should have been shipped originally??? For this reason I refuse to ever purchase a product from this company again - and I would suggest others only consider purchasing one in person, after a thorough inspection.

Ross_Alford

Registered: October 2005Posts: 36

Tamrac 5577 Expedition 7 review by Ross_Alford

Review Date: 1/15/2007

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: None indicated| Rating: 8

Pros:

Nice size, greater depth than many similar packs is very useful

Cons:

Build quality so-so, little room for non-photo gear

The camera gear part of this bag is a really nice size. It is deeped than the usual camera daypack, deep enough (just) to hold a folded 4 X 5 field camera or a pro DSLR in a vertical (when the pack is lying flat) position. Many lenses will also sit that way. That means that you can pack a *lot* of gear in this bag.

The main disadvantage of it is that there is almost no space for anything that you might want to keep isolated from your camera gear, such as food, drink bottles, etc. The harness is also not all that great, relatively narrow straps.

My pack also had quality problems. The inside compartment zipper quickly gave up, and after a while the main support straps started to fray and separate from the body of the pack. Not entirely confidence inspiring. Tamrac gets some marks for support, they did offer to look at it and fix it if the problems were due to defects if I returned it to the factory, but since I am in Australia and the factory isn't, it didn't seem worth it.